


Dared

by Augustus



Category: Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Popslash
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-01-25
Updated: 2004-01-25
Packaged: 2018-08-16 07:12:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8092552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Augustus/pseuds/Augustus
Summary: Nick never refuses a dare.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [turps](https://archiveofourown.org/users/turps/gifts).



Nick didn't often wish that he was younger. Being the baby of the group was sometimes helpful, like when he was trying to avoid the blame for a practical joke, or when journalists were asking the group embarrassing questions about sex, but most of the time it sucked. The other guys could all get into the over-eighteen clubs, no questions asked, which left Nick stuck in a hotel room with only his mother (or occasionally the junior member of a rival boyband) for company. Girls sent his bandmates cool things, like bras and panties and pornographic letters, but Nick just received an endless supply of teddy bears and sappy letters from twelve year old girls. Mostly, he gave the teddies to charity or Angel and posted the more amusing of the letters home to Aaron, who liked to boast about older women to his fourth grade friends.

Huddled in a blanket in a blackened room, however, Nick was beginning to think that a few less years might actually be a very good thing. For starters, if he was a mere thirteen months younger, he would have been younger than Justin, which would've enabled him to refuse Justin's dares without being mocked for the rest of their combined lives. Nick hated refusing a dare at the best of times, but as things stood, there was no way at all that he could say no to Justin without coming out of the experience looking like a coward. Justin wasn't stupid, unfortunately, and he made good use of the limited power he held, trapping Nick at every opportunity and subjecting him to all manner of embarrassing and disconcerting challenges.

The latest would have to be the worst so far. Nick was quickly beginning to wish that he'd never had the bright idea of a quick candy-run down to the closest convenience store. Their shared hotel was in a mixed residential and commercial area and they only had a block to walk to reach the store, so they had chosen to walk back by a more complicated route, sucking on bitter German candy and exchanging tales of hiding from Lou and sixteen year old blondes who would kiss anyone in a band, as long as you smiled nicely and called them by name.

The house was on the same block as their hotel and almost directly to the rear. At first, Nick had thought it was just abandoned, but then he had realised that the windows were charred as well as broken, the paint on their frames bubbled and peeling from too much heat.

"There's been a fire," Justin had remarked, offhand.

"No shit, Sherlock," Nick had replied, with all the superiority that an extra year awarded.

Justin had just rolled his eyes and quickly hoisted himself over the short brick fence, heading over to the closest window before Nick had a chance to speak again. Shaking his head, Nick had reluctantly followed, peeling the wrapper from a new piece of candy.

"Creepy, isn't it?" Justin had asked, squinting a little as he peered through the jagged frame of broken glass.

"It's a burnt out building," Nick had replied, his voice carefully dismissive. "What's so creepy about that?"

Justin had glared his response. "If it's so damn boring, why don't you spend the night here?"

"I'm not sure-..."

"I dare you," Justin had jumped in, before Nick could finish, and that was that. One quick raid on Nick's hotel room later, Nick's fate was sealed.

The blanket around Nick's shoulders was doing little to control his shivering. The night was cold and sitting in a blackened room for three hours was already beginning to take its toll, both physically and emotionally. With no electricity, there was little to do beyond making up stories inside his head and it was entirely too easy to let his thoughts run away with him once the shadows had stretched completely across the floor. Nick couldn't help but imagine a fiery death for the former inhabitants of the house - so much so that soon each sound made him jump nervously for fear that the building's remains might be about to collapse around him at any minute. Logic suggested that the house wouldn't have been left standing if it were at all dangerous, but it was hard to focus on logic when there were still seven long hours for Nick to endure before the first weak light of dawn.

Shuddering, he pulled his blanket a little tighter and hoped that he'd soon begin to grow sleepy. The remaining time would pass a hell of a lot more quickly if only he could convince his body to stay unconscious for a good part of it. Unfortunately, the situation didn't exactly lend itself to a good night's sleep. Especially since the only padding between Nick and the ash-covered floor beneath him was another blanket, folded in half but still only providing very minimal comfort.

"I'm gonna _kill_ Justin," Nick muttered out loud, frowning a little at the hitch that was clearly evident in his voice.

Sighing, he lowered his head to the floor and tried to will himself to sleep.

Nick had only been still for a minute when a loud crash brought him immediately to his feet, his heart pounding in his chest. It took every ounce of his fast-waning courage not to just pick up his blankets and leave. The thought of admitting to Justin that he had been too scared to stay in the house more than a few hours was a stronger motivator than pure courage could ever be, however, so Nick left his blankets where they were, picking up his flashlight instead and making his way over to the doorway through which the sound had come.

It was amazing how little light the flashlight shone into the thick blackness, the charred walls seeming to compound the darkness. Nick moved gingerly, watching his footing as he stepped through ashy plaster that had fallen from the ceiling and jagged pieces of unidentifiable wood. A further, quieter noise led him down the hallway and into what had once been a kitchen. The damage was worse there, suggesting that the fire might well have started with a pan of oil left unattended on the stove or a hotplate that hadn't been turned all of the way off. The thought was comforting somehow, as though the worst of Nick's imaginings couldn't stem from such an innocuous beginning.

The thump of his heartbeat was just beginning to fade a little when a sudden flurry of movement from the far corner of the room caused him to spin around, blindly waving his flashlight in an attempt to spot any would-be attacker. After a second of futile circling, the light finally caught two glowing circles and Nick began to breathe again. "A cat. A fucking _cat_ ," he muttered, unsure whether to be amused or pissed off by the cliché of the situation. The intruder hissed in response, blinking into the circle of light before growling and darting past Nick's legs.

Feeling a little sheepish, Nick returned to the familiarity of the front room that he was already beginning to think of as 'his'. Mentally, he cursed Justin yet again for placing him in a state of mind where he would be freaked out by the sort of situation that generally only occurred in books and bad movies. The way things were going, soon he'd be jumping at the sound of the wind outside or hiding beneath his blankets whenever the house creaked particularly loudly. It didn't augur well for the next few hours. 

When the second crash echoed through the house and rattled the remaining triangles of glass in the window frames, Nick refused to move. _Just a cat_ , he thought, shifting a little inside the cocoon of his blanket. _Nothing to panic about_. The pounding that followed, however, was too regular to be of feline origin, loudly insistent and sounding very much like it was coming from the front door. Resolutely, he ignored the sound, humming shakily beneath his breath in an attempt to distract himself. Finally, the noise culminated in a screech of splintering wood and a stream of loud curses, uttered in a strangely familiar voice.

"Nick? You in here?"

Chris. 

Nick didn't let the knowledge that much of his anger was probably redirected fear distract him from the loud assault that slipped from between his lips. "What the _fuck_ did you think you were doing?" he shouted, making his way through to the front entranceway as he spoke. "Trying to scare the living daylights out of me, I bet. God, you lot are all as bad as each other!"

Caught up in his tirade, Nick forgot to pay attention to the uneven ground, with the rather predictable outcome being that he tripped on a large clump of plaster about a meter away from the front door. Unable to break his fall on the way down, he landed face first in a pile of ash, his limbs sprawling gracelessly amongst the rubble on the floor. 

"Nice greeting, man," Chris snickered, silhouetted against the doorway. "I hope you don't expect me to try to compete."

"Fuck you," Nick muttered, wiping some ash from his lips with the back of one hand.

"Thanks for the offer, but that's not why I'm here." Holding out a hand, Chris helped Nick scrabble to his feet, pausing while Nick brushed himself down. "I'm here to drag your ass back to the hotel. Also to tell you off some, but that can wait until you don't look like you've been living down a coal mine for the last ten years."

Nick shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere." Turning, he walked back through to the front room, watching his step carefully this time, unwilling to make a fool out of himself two times in as many minutes. 

Once he was sitting on his trusty blanket once more, he continued to remove as much as possible of the ash and plaster crumbs that covered the front of his jeans and sweater. He was a little annoyed, although not at all surprised, when Chris joined him in the room, a dark shadow against the even darker mass of the wall. Nick ignored him, turning slightly so that he could only see Chris out of the corner of his eye.

"Come on, Nick. You've proved your point." Chris was apparently very bad at taking a hint. "Now come back to the hotel before your mom realises you're gone."

"She thinks I'm in Justin's room," Nick replied, unconcerned. "I'm not a _complete_ idiot, you know."

"No?" There was movement in Nick's peripheral vision and then suddenly Chris was in front of him, the lines of his face fully visible for the first time since he had arrived. "She dropped by to check up on you. Luckily, I was there, because Justin's never been much of a liar where parents are concerned. She thinks the two of you fought and I sent you off to Joey's room to lick your wounds."

"I barely _know_ Joey," Nick frowned.

"Well, if your mother asks, the two of you are the best of friends." Visibly frustrated, Chris kicked lightly at the edge of the blanket beneath Nick. "Look, Justin wouldn't tell me the full story, but this is _so_ not cool, Nick. I hate lying to other people's parents and I hate being forced to play dad and come out here to drag your ass back home."

"Nobody asked you to," Nick muttered petulantly, staring at Chris' shoes in order to avoid looking him in the eye.

"Oh, for fuck's sake." There was a definite note of irritation in Chris' voice when he spoke again. "If you're so keen for me to play the adult, then I will. Don't you realise how _dangerous_ this is? This house could fall down around you at any minute and, even if you manage not to be buried beneath a pile of burnt-out rubble, you're not exactly protected from the elements or any passing lunatics who happen to notice your flashlight. What the hell made you want to spend the night here, anyway? I know the hotel's pretty basic, but at least it has electricity."

"Justin dared me."

"He _what_?" When Nick finally managed to look up, Chris was frowning. "You mean this was _his_ idea and he didn't-..."

Nick shrugged. "This isn't exactly my idea of fun, you know."

Shaking his head, Chris tugged at the blanket surrounding Nick's shoulders. "Come on. We'll go back to the hotel and I'll yell at Justin for a bit... and then he'll probably do that pouty thing he does and I'll forget what I was trying to say and end up kicking his ass at Mario instead. Come on," he repeated when Nick grabbed the blanket a little more tightly. "It'll be fun."

"No thank you."

Chris paused. "Why not?"

"Because Justin will say I chickened out."

"I'll stick up for you, dude. I'll tell him I carried you kicking and screaming out of here and threaten to tell his mom about the dare if he so much as _looks_ like he's going to say anything to the contrary."

"I'm going to stay." Nick's voice was quiet, but he was pleased by the resolve that could be heard within his words. 

Chris watched him for a while, then shrugged. "Okay."

Nick felt vaguely disappointed that Chris had been willing to give in so easily. "Okay?"

"Okay," Chris confirmed. "I'm well aware of how much of a brat the Infant can be once he gets started on something. Bear with me, okay?"

Nick opened his mouth to respond, but Chris was already heading through the doorway to the hall. Seconds later, he heard the creak of the front door as it was closed, followed by the pound of running footsteps on the pavement outside. Feeling a little dejected, he concentrated on unwrapping himself from his blanket and re-arranging it so that it could form both cover and pillow for his makeshift bed.

Nick didn't know Chris very well, but he had always liked him - liked him a _lot_ , if he wished to admit it - and the house somehow seemed even emptier now that he'd been and gone. He had a feeling that it wouldn't have taken Chris much longer to convince him to return to the hotel, so it was probably a good thing that he'd left without any further attempts at persuasion. Good, but also a little peculiar and, if Nick was willing to admit it to himself, a little disheartening as well. It made it impossible to pretend that Chris had come out of any motive other than a perceived responsibility towards the youngest member of a fellow boyband. 

It could have been worse, Nick supposed. Chris could have sent Kevin - in which case he would be halfway back to the hotel by now, trying his hardest to tune out the lecture he would undoubtedly be receiving. Feeling marginally better, he snuggled a little further beneath the blanket and closed his eyes.

He must have fallen asleep because the sound of footsteps outside the house jolted him out of a light doze. Jerking upright, he blinked into the darkness, scrabbling around on the ground with one hand in an attempt to locate his flashlight. He didn't think to wonder why it was no longer casting any light into the room until it was in his hands and he had flicked the switch a couple of times with no luck. Obviously he had slept a little, then: long enough at least for the batteries to flicker out.

Now, however, he was wide awake, his heart beating a staccato rhythm within his chest. The sound of the front door opening seemed to echo throughout the house and Nick huddled beneath the blanket and tried not to think too much about the sort of person who would frequent abandoned houses at this time of night. Suddenly, the thought of one of Kevin's lectures didn't seem so bad after all.

The footsteps began again, scuffing through the rubble and moving steadfastly in the direction of the room in which Nick sat. Nick pulled the blanket over his head, and hoped that the childhood conviction that monsters were powerless as long as you couldn't see them remained true if you were seventeen years old. The flickering light that made its way through the thickness of the wool seemed very real, however, as did the rough grasp of fingers around his shoulder. 

"Nick? What are you-..." Chris had time to say before Nick squeezed the breath from him in a sudden, relieved hug.

"I thought you weren't you," Nick managed to explain into Chris' shoulder.

"Nope. Definitely me, last time I looked," Chris replied lightly, and Nick had to hug him even more tightly for not mocking him at all.

"I didn't think you were coming back," Nick continued, static lifting his hair as he shrugged the blanket to the ground.

"I needed supplies." Chris gestured to two large sports bags that lay to either side of his feet. "And I had to coach Joey on our chosen story. It's all very well convincing your mom that you're pouting in Joey's ensuite, but Lou's sure to suspect something fishy if you and I are _both_ nowhere to be found."

Nick frowned. "What do you mean?"

Squatting down, Chris began to pull blankets, pillows and a handful of candy bars out of the two bags. "I would've thought that was obvious. I'm gonna stay the night here. With you."

"But... why?"

"Well, you didn't want to leave, and I figured that two people would do a better job of fending off any passing axe murderers, even if it's not going to make a whole lot of difference if this place decides to fall down around us any time soon. I suppose I could throw myself on top of you to protect you from crumbling walls, but I'm not sure how effective that'd be, all things considered." Chris shrugged. "Also, I brought candy."

"Candy is good," Nick said, mostly because he couldn't trust himself not to hug Chris again if he tried to say anything more.

"A man after my own heart." Chris dropped down onto Nick's blanket, arranging two pillows at one end. "Now, if the hotel asks to search these bags on our way in tomorrow, you're on your own. I like you, but you're not *NSYNC. I only take the rap for my _own_ boys, understood?"

Nick grinned. "Understood." Sitting cross-legged in front of Chris, he reached for a candy bar. "D'you mind?"

"Help yourself." Chris watched in silence for a moment as Nick peeled back the top of the wrapper and took a bite, savouring the sweet flavour of chocolate and caramel that filled his mouth.

"It's good," Nick said finally, still chewing. He licked a stray crumb of chocolate from his lower lip, then held the bar out to Chris. "Try?"

Chris wrapped his hand around Nick's and leaned in to take a surprisingly delicate bite. "Mmm," he agreed around a mouthful of candy, dropping Nick's hand and reaching for a blanket instead. "So, tell me," he began, stretching out so that he was lying with his head on the closest pillow, "do you and Justin do this often? Because it would explain that time he came to my door, dripping wet and begging to use my shower because Lance didn't want him to make puddles in their room."

"Nothing to do with me," Nick replied reluctantly, "although I wish it was. He's the one who does the daring, not me."

"That sounds like the Justin I know and love," Chris laughed, as Nick stretched out beside him, licking the remains of the candy bar from his fingers. "Why don't you just say _no_? If it applies to drugs, I'm sure it applies to annoying teenagers as well."

"Because he's _younger_ than me," Nick explained, a slight suggestion of a whine beginning to colour the tone of his voice. "I can't say no, or I'll look like a sissy."

"Dare me to do something."

"Huh?"

"Dare me to do something," Chris repeated. "Whatever you want."

Nick stared at him, confused. "Why?" When Chris didn't reply, he shrugged and gave in. "Okay, then. Um... I dare you to run up and down the street naked."

"No."

"Well, why the hell did you ask me to say it, then?" Nick demanded, beginning to grow annoyed. 

"To prove a point." Chris smiled smugly. "You didn't think I was a sissy for saying no, did you?"

"No, but-..."

"And," Chris interrupted, "I'm way older than you are. So there."

"That's different," Nick protested. "You're cool and stuff. Possibly a little insane, but cool all the same. It's... different," he finished weakly.

"You're cool too," Chris said, unable to be dissuaded. "You like candy and you look good in a blanket. What more do you need?"

"It's Justin you have to convince, not me," Nick grumbled, rolling over and staring up at where the ceiling would be if only the flashlight's glow reached that far. 

"Yeah, well, Justin's not the brightest spark around," Chris said, his smile evident in the tone of his voice. "Let's face it, he's spending all this time with a gorgeous blond and I bet he hasn't even come close to making a move on you yet."

Blushing, Nick was glad of the concealing power of darkness. "Shuddup," he muttered, smiling a little nonetheless. 

They lay in silence for a while, Chris chewing on one of his candy bars and Nick trying to control the temperature of his face. Finally, Nick spoke again, turning to look at the shadowed lines of Chris' face. "You never really said why you're here. I mean... why you're staying with me, rather than telling me to go back to the hotel, or leaving me here alone."

"I _did_ tell you to go back to the hotel," Chris protested. "It's not _my_ fault that you didn't listen."

"But... you're here. And you barely even know me."

"That doesn't mean I can't like you, does it?" When Nick didn't answer, Chris went on. "I didn't want you to have to stay here by yourself. It's dark, it's cold, and I bet it's really fucking spooky sitting in here all alone. If I'm here, we can talk or make shadow puppets on the walls and the time will go twice as fast."

"It's still cold," Nick pointed out.

"We can huddle together and share body heat. You can even pretend I'm Justin if you want." Chris smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

Nick grinned back at him. "No thanks."

"Oh." Chris paused. "I thought..."

"Nope."

When Nick kissed him, Chris tasted of chocolate and nougat and his hair was surprisingly soft beneath the palm of Nick's right hand. He didn't pull away, just slid an arm around Nick's waist and parted his lips when Nick closed his eyes and deepened the kiss. It was calm and unexpected and they both smiled when they drifted apart.

"So, I guess you're not into shadow puppets, then," Chris said, shaking his head. "Pity. I do a mean rabbit."

"Later," Nick laughed. "We've got all night."

Chris looked disappointed for all of two seconds before a smile crept back onto his face. "Okay, then," he said, his eyes wide with a sudden idea. "I dare you to kiss me again."

"You're older than me," Nick argued, shaking his head. "I don't have to accept."

Chris wriggled a little closer, and Nick found himself kissing him anyway. And then again... and again... just for good measure. After all, stuck in a burnt-out house until morning, there wasn't a lot else that they could do - and Nick never _had_ been very good at refusing a dare.

**25th January, 2004**


End file.
